CRWIA Stage 1: Screening - key questions

1. What aspects of the policy/measure will affect children
and young people up to the age of 18?

The Bill will set targets to reduce the numbers of children and
young people living in poverty in Scotland and underpin these
targets with a robust delivery plan aligned to parliamentary
terms.

The action taken to meet these targets align to the overarching
aim to build a Fairer Scotland; reducing inequality and improving
the life chances of all citizens.

Indirectly the provisions in the Bill will impact on all
children and young people as a reduction in poverty rates will
decrease the associated impacts of living in poverty.

2. What likely impact - direct or indirect - will the
policy/measure have on children and young people?

Setting statutory targets will have the direct impact of
encouraging Scottish Ministers to put in place policies that will
help them to achieve the targets -
i.e. policies that will lead to a
reduction in child poverty rates.

The indirect impact on children is wide ranging and will vary
dependent on socio-economic standing and the depth of poverty
experienced.

The Scottish Government already has a wide range of policies in
place which will support achievement of the ambitions outlined in
the Bill. Policies such as reducing the attainment gap will have
direct impacts on children and will also serve to tackle the
effects of poverty on children. Increases to Child Care hours will
also directly impact on children and will serve to enhance their
learning experience, this may also have indirect benefits as
parents are able to work and earn more.

Other policies such as promoting the living wage will have
indirect impacts on children as increases to household income will
reduce the number of children living in poverty.

3. Are there particular groups of children and young people
who are more likely to be affected than others?

As the Bill will set statutory income targets to reduce the
number of children living in poverty the primary group impacted
will be those children living in poverty. A reduction in the
numbers of children in poverty will impact on various groups
including pre-school children, children in rural areas etc, and
might be expected to particularly benefit children in household
types where poverty levels are particularly high - including
households with a disabled child, and minority ethnic households.
With this in mind, it will be important that benefits yielded are
distributed in a way that advances equality. More detail on
equality considerations is presented in the Equality Impact
Assessment for this Bill.

Tackling poverty in childhood will reduce the risk of children
growing up with the damaging effects of poverty and will increase
Health and reduce the risk of offending within many of the most
disadvantaged families.

Longer term the effects of this Bill will impact on all Children
and Families in Scotland as a reduction in childhood poverty will
improve life outcomes and reduce intergenerational cycles of
poverty.

We can expect the delivery plan to build on the range of
activity already underway, including;

Our commitment to promoting the Living Wage;

Free school meals;

Expansion of funded early learning and childcare;

The Early Years Collaborative and Raising Attainment for All
Programme;

The Play, Talk Read and Read, Write, Count campaigns;

The Scottish Attainment Challenge: support by the Attainment
Scotland Fund (£750 million over this parliamentary
session);

New duties introduced by the Education (Scotland) Act 2016 to
tackle inequalities of educational outcome experienced by pupils
as a result of socio-economic disadvantage;

Implementing the recommendations of the Commission for
Developing Scotland's Young Workforce;

Delivery of our affordable homes and social rent
targets;

The People and Communities Fund;

Enhancing the rights of young carers as set out in the Carers
(Scotland) Act 2016, to be commenced;

The new Maternity and Early Years Allowance;

The deployment of 250 links workers in
GPs' surgeries in
our most deprived neighbourhoods to help people get access to the
services that they need; increasing the Health Visiting workforce
and implementing the refreshed Universal Pathway;

Expanding the Family Nurse Partnership programme; and

A review of maternity and neo-natal services.

4. Who else have you involved in your
deliberations?

Early and extensive deliberations have been conducted with the
Ministerial Advisory Group on Child Poverty, The Independent
Advisor on Poverty & Inequality, The Child Poverty Action
Group, One Parent Families Scotland and other key external
stakeholders on what action is required to tackle Child Poverty and
the best format of any proposed Bill or Legislation.

This builds on the work undertaken when implementing the Child
Poverty Strategy and the associated measurement framework; the
sophisticated measurement framework was developed with experts and
leading children's organisations and is widely supported by
stakeholders.

5. Will this require a
CRWIA?

Due to the scope of the Child Poverty Bill and the scale of
potential impacts a full
CRWIA
will be required